Nitto tires made by Toyo?

[CMeese]

While pricing a set of Nitto Terra Grappler LT295/70R17 tires with Discount tires the sales rep I was speaking to said that Nitto tires were made by Toyo! He said most people did not know this. I said I had hardly heared of Nitto , but that I knew the Toyo brand name meant high quality. Can any TDR members confirm this? Also if you are using these tires what can you comment about them?

 

[kernen]

NITTO makes a decent tire for the price, they are real popular with the tuner car group . Are the LT295/70R17 you are looking at E load rated?

 

[Coolslice]

Well I wondered the same thing, I was told that they are made in the same plant. You can obviously tell by looking at them that they are almost exactly the same. I have Nittos and I don't really like them. They are not easy to balance, the side walls look a bit thin, and they suck offroad. On the otherhand, they are priced very well and can be had in many less common sizes. I think the biggest strike against them are that they're D rated, some care and some don't.

 

[nickleinonen]

nitto and toyo are part of the same parent company, and most of their tires use the same carcass for the tires with different sidewall and tread...

 

[jrobinson2]

From the Toyo global website history page

1999:Nitto Tire North America established.

Also

1985: Nippon, a joint venture with Goodyear,

1988: GTY Tire Company, a joint venture company with General Tire (presently Continental North America Inc. ) and Yokohama Rubber



I have no idea about the differences between Toyo and Nitto tires but just because the tires come from the same factory or even the same molds does not mean the tire construction and materials are the same, many companies have created an "economy" brand to access a different customer base and avoid tarnishing their "premium" brand name.



Jared